Isn’t it a Little Too Early for Patting Ourselves on the Back, Mr. President?

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WPCNR NEWS COMMENTARY. By John F. Bailey. September 25, 2005: “The evacuations worked,” the new talking head of FEMA said today. We are getting supplies in tonight, and President Bush assures us within 24 hours of his bailing out of Texas and heading to the NORAD bunker in Colorado Springs that the Federales handled the emergency efficiently this time. (Like Sergeant Garcia in the Old Zorro movies.)  


The pathetic scramble to repair President Bush’s sorry image as a leader has begun. Photo ops in Austin Saturday, where he said we are going to help rebuild your lives. How about rebuilding one?


Look for more video of the President tastelessly pointing to monitors as he watches the government handling of Rita. Look for commentators to in earnest tones, say how the President’s hands-on talking to have galvanized  FEMA into action and how it worked better this week.


But, were they better?


1. Contrary to the FEMA head’s observation that “The evacuations worked,” any damn fool watching television Thursday could tell you nobody in Texas knows how to do an evacuation, let alone FEMA.


The Texas Governor said everyone should get out of town. Some plan! They didn’t stagger the evacuation by areas, license plate sequence, or times, so every one hit the road at once, and if Rita had sped up you might have cars swamped in the rains that are now arriving. As it was, cars ran out of gas, and got stranded. It was like Westchester hitting the Tappan Zee on Friday night. That was idiotic, uncontrolled, unthoughtout. Not that a jam would not result, but it could have been better, had anybody thought about it.


On Sunday, the Texas Governor patted himself on the back saying they had evacuated 2-1/2 million people with relatively little problems. As one evacuee said, “It was CHAOS!” How can reporters let these bureaucrats get away with statements like that?


Actually you probably could have riddn a horse or driven a buckboard wagon  to Dallas faster than you could drive it.


2. They are reporting no deaths due to the storm. Nuts! That’s a lie. The crowing about how well the Bush Administration has responded has begun.  Have we forgotten the bus explosion killing those poor elderly because they were evacuated in a bus that screeched to a stop, its wheels locking up and causing a fire?


3. They are claiming relief is being sped to persons in shelters. That is what they said three weeks ago, too. We shall see.


Now, it is Sunday night and the Associated Press reports a General in charge of the Rita situation asks President Bush for a National Disaster Plan. Unless I miss my guess,  I thought that was what the Department of Homeland Security was in charge of creating the last four years!!!!


4. There are reports of looting along the Louisiana coasts, and other communities. Where is the national guard — again?


5. The New Orleans Levees broke again.  The first thing the head of the Army Corps of Engineers did was make an excuse that the levees were not high enough and that is why the levee was overflowed again. How many times does it have to take to realize the levees were not high enough? Brilliant analysis.


Perhaps, maybe, the Corps of Engineers should have kept on piling sandbags to prevent or slow down any overflow…pour quick concrete..whatever to keep an overflow from happening form a normal heavy rain.


It went over the top, guys! You had two and a half weeks of  dry weather to keep on piling on sandbags and thinking what would happen if you had 3 inches of rain, which is what you got plus the tide sweep. Actually according to precipitation reports, you had only received about 2 inches in New Orleans Friday when they broke.


You pumped out instead of building higher. Your call. It once again indicates the Army Corps of Engineers — and particularly the Fema Fumblers were not thinking — gee, what if we get one of those southern soakers.  This from a dumb reporter who doesn’t know anything, talking, but I do know that one of the things you do to prevent rising water from going over the top of something was to build something higher. Tonight the Army Corps of Engineers told CNN, they were going to build the levies up to the height they were before Katrina by June 1. Unless I miss my guess, I’d build them higher than that? But what guarantee do we have they will hold?


You would think with all the supposed government “know-how” at the Army Corps of Engineers with three weeks of dry weather to play with, they might have come up with something different. Now according to news reports Saturday they are repairing their repair, doing the same thing.


It is now Sunday night. The Louisiana Hurricane Center points out the Army Corps of Engineers used limestone to fill the dykes which has high erosion characteristics. The Louisiana Hurrincane Center is saying the levee walls, canal walls were undermined from underneath and the storm surge was less than expected, pointing the fingers at the Army Corps of Engineers for not knowing what it was doing. Thank you!


Please, could we get someone in here who knows something about dykes?


6. Crack communications  Police were seen giving tickets to cars who had heard on the radio the southbound lanes were now open to go north evacuating Houston. I kid you not. Now that’s communication.


7. Planes left Houston half empty because the Department of Homeland Security’s loyal security guards did not show up for work, and instead of waiving airport security checks, they held people up and the planes half full left on time so as not to disrupt the precious bankrupt airlines schedules.


Again — where is the thinking here? Wand ’em and move them out. Have some bomb-sniffing dogs snif the carry-ons and the luggage, and get them on the planes, please!  Where was the thinking here FEMA?


And, please, now that so many airlines are declaring bankruptcy they could at least hold the planes until they were filled, instead of pocketing the cash when tickets sold did not show.  Where was the order from the FAA or FEMA to the airlines to hold on until fully loaded on this one? 


8. Could we wait just a couple of days before we check into how well the oil refineries are? What a misplaced sense of priorities.


9. Are the temporary shelters available for the destroyed homes in the new sections of Louisiana and northeast Texas available?  Let’s wait and see.


10. Where is the “management” of what to do with the new flooding in New Orleans? To develop a solution to perpetual pump outs? They have had three weeks to think about this! Let’s see some security thinking for our $35 billion a year?!? 


That is part of this disaster too! What is the plan: just plug the leak again and pump out some more? What? Perhaps they should bring in someone from Holland who knows something about dykes — just maybe? The Army Corps of Engineers has failed twice in three weeks — not being prepared for a levee break, and executing a stopgap repair that failed. And, we are listening to them again?


It is incredible to me how quickly the new FEMA head wants to pat himself on the back, and how our President is quickly patting his government on the back. It is amazing to me the news media are letting them get away with this. And speaking of the Pres, the spin is “he does not want to get in the way:” Translation: “he is getting out of the way.”


So, take comfort that our ludicrous Department of Homeland Security which has sucked up roughly $120 Billion in three years and has finally got it right so quickly.


11. Where is FEMA’s Plan to rebuild housing and provide it for the newly displaced from three weeks ago? We have heard nothing about this. They are FROZEN in inaction! What is the plan? Well, there is no plan.


 Seeing the devastation in Beaumont, the Louisiana Bayou country from Rita, just compounds the misery. There are no jobs. No electricity. Why is the media not grrrrrriiiiiiiiiiilllllling these geniuses on how the recovery is proceeding? What comes next? What’s your plan. Yeah, they’re doing such a good job.


First, as Donald Trump told The O’Reilly Factor, and disclosed exclusively to the CitizeNetReporter last week, the government is talking to him about getting involved in the redevelopment efforts.


What’s there to talk about? Sign the Trumpster up! He, Martin Ginsburg, Louis Cappelli, Forest City Ratner, the big time developers (other than Cheney’s developer pets),  have got to be called in to devise any rebuilding plan and temporary housing for the folk down there and execute it. Heck, it has taken 3 years to start 59 units in White Plains, for crying out loud.


 Well, what’s there to talk about?


Pull in Trump and let him take charge and come up with a plan for temporary housing or alternatives for restoring New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama and now the Beaumont area that makes sense. The media is not thinking here these last few weeks. Reporting news is not pointing a camera and looking pained. It’s reaming the questions at these incompetants and asking what is the plan for this area?


We  have to start thinking about it with the nation’s best brains instead of its worst: the federal government on mass — and that includes all you congressman and senators out there. Demand a plan for American Relief, and demand it by October 15. Shake this group of managerial clowns up.


12. Who is doing the rescuing? It ain’t FEMA and the feds. It is folk in boats streaming in, trailing their boats to flooded bayou areas. It is local sheriffs. Local citizens: Americans rescuing Americans. The new FEMA guy has a helluva nerve patting himself and his agency on the back. How about some facts on what you are doing now? The Airborne is going in tomorrow (Sunday), I hear. Why do not the media report who is conducting the rescues and their affiliation? Well that would be the truth.


13.  What is the death toll?


 


14. Where are the 2,000 missing children, Mr. New FEMA Talking Head?


FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security should get the hell out of the way because they cannot do it. Neither can the President. The last thing this country needs is a President who does not want to get in the way.


14. How about one scintilla of the courage the displaced, suffering, hard working rescuers are showing being shown in our President?


The President once again cut and ran from Texas, his home state, so fast it was as if he were a jackrabbit with a cougar on his tail and his tail was between his legs.  He said he had to see how the system works in Colorado Springs. Right. Whatever happened to Air Force One communications where he supposedly monitors everything?


Come on, Mr. President. Perhaps you should have found that out how government works in emergencies  after 9/11/2001, not this weekend.


Perhaps the persons I saw on MSNBC late Saturday evening walking around in the water of New Orleans and the bayous, still think your government is capable. I do not.


 The only thing this government does well is creating phoney images and spins with the worst possible sense of timing.


Looking good in a photo op is not leadership.


 

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Henry Fitch Taylor Exhibition Opens in Cos Cob.

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WPCNR Gallery Observer. From Historical Society of Greenwich. September  25, 2005: A groundbreaking exhibition exploring the career of Cos Cob artist Henry Fitch Taylor (1853-1925) opens at The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, Bush-Holley Historic Site, on Friday, September 30, 2005.  

Cos Cob’s Surprising Modernist: Henry Fitch Taylor, brings together many of Taylor’s works, some which have never been exhibited before, and is the first scholarly attempt to recapture portions of Taylor’s fascinating life and career.  Taylor’s art is dramatically different from other artists that stayed and worked at the Holley House between 1890 and 1920 when the Holley boarding house was home to the first Impressionist art colony in Connecticut.  


Although he was an accomplished Impressionist painter, several years into the beginning of the twentieth century, Taylor began experimenting with radical new themes and techniques originating from Europe, such as cubism and orphism.  The exhibition at Bush-Holley Historic Site, Cos Cob’s Surprising Modernist: Henry Fitch Taylor, is guest curated by Dr. Christine I. Oaklander, Director of Collections and Exhibitions with the Allentown Art Museum.  


The exhibition is open to the public from September 30 through December 31, 2005 (closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day); gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. Museum admission is $6 for adults, $4 for students and seniors; children under 12 and Historical Society members are free.  Museum admission includes entrance to the exhibition and a tour of Bush-Holley House.  Bush-Holley Historic Site is located at 39 Strickland Road, Cos Cob, Conn. Call 203-869-6899 for more information or visit www.hstg.org <http://www.hstg.org/> .

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Tigers Go 3-0 in 49-0 Victory Over Lincoln. Mitchell, Conor, Morello Break it

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. September 24, 2005:  White Plains put away Lincoln today at Parker Stadium, 49-0, scoring 3 times in the third quarter to put the game out of reach, after leading 20-0 at the half. A 56 yard run off tackle and DOWN the sideline  by Mickey Morello, a Gilmartin-Donohue 10 yard TD pass to Tommie Lee, after a fumble and a 55 yard TD run by Raymond Mitchell on a punt return shocked the crowd and disheartened the Lancers. A 70 yard run by  Tyrone Roper was the Tigers final score.


 



RUNNING IN DAYLIGHT: After a scoreless first quarter, a crafty linedrive rolling 47 yard punt by Ian Jackson wound up giving White Plains superior field position at midfield on the Lincoln 48 after exchange of downs.  Jamaine Hewitt was stopped at the line. Mickey Morello churned through the line for 7 then picked up 2 more to the27.  Ray Mitchell came in for Jamaine Hewitt, and Lincoln paid no attention to Ray. Conor Gilmartin-Donahue pitched back to Mitch and he streaked between  right end and tackle angling for coffin corner and scampered for a 27 yard touchdown to make it 6-0. In this WPCNR Action Shot, Mitchell (20) has broken into clear at the Lincoln 10 on right side of your picture. Ian Jackson added the point to make it 7-0 at the 8:31 mark.  Photo by WPCNR Sports


Jackson then saved the tying touchdown on the ensuing kickoff when  Joseph Martin was flying at the 50 yard line with only Jackson in front of him. Jackson stood his ground and stopped Martin cold at the midstripe saving the equalizer.


 



Conor-Air Strike! TouchDOWN!TouchDOWN! Joseph Henry turned at the five yard line and caught a high touchdown seeking bomb from Conor Gilmartin-Donohue on first down. It was Conor’s first completion of the day. He added another touchdown pass in the third quarter. This was one beautiful pass play. Henry has just entered paydirt. Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 


After George DonPierre, Gerard Bryant and Mickey Morello sacked  Todd Williams for an 11 yard loss on third down to on the ensuing Lincoln possession, leaving Lincoln with a 4th down on their own 27,  a poor punt to the Lincoln 43 set White Plains up again with 4 minutes in the half. After Hewitt ran for two yards, Two quarterback bootlegs by Conor Gilmartin-Donahue, first deep around right end for 11 yards for one first down, then another on 2 and 7 around left end for another 11  gave the Tigers a first down on the 30 .


After Jamaine Hewitt picked up 3, came the beauty play on 2 and 7 from the Lincoln 27. Conor faded back, looked left, looking deep and launched a long one high and deep into coffin corner.  Joseph Henry was flying in a big lazy circle route down the sideline, slipping around the deep man and caught it waist high on the fly, TouchDOWN. This, with Jackson’s point, made it 14-0 with two minutes to go in the half.


Then disaster struck for Lincoln with seconds to go in the half.  The Tigers had been threatening to block Lincoln punts the previous four possessions. With Lincoln with a fourth down on about the 20, the Tigers blocked a punt and it rolled into the endzone where Jordan Griffith and a chain of Tigers recovered it for a touchdown to make it 20-0 at the half. The Tigers took the ball in the second half and scored on their first two plays and returned a punt to deny Lincoln.  After all was sorted out, Jordan was credited with the punt stuff and Jeffrey Moore covered the loose ball for the touchdown that broke Lincoln’s will.


This was another strong defensive effort by White Plains, though Lincoln was able to move the ball in the first quarter, the Tigers contained the speed and wore down the smaller Lancer squad.



Lesley Tompkins Leads the White Plains High School Marching Band at halftime. Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 



White Plains Cheerleaders Performed Moving Pyramids for first time in public. Their haltime routine to Car Wash reached a new level of competitive cheerleading stunts, never before seen in White Plains Cheerleader history.  Photo by WPCNR Sports



The St. Bernards Church “Bernies” Football Programs were recognized at halftime. They are the Tigers of the future. Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 

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Brute Epic Opens WPPAC. Sat Nt Live Meets Gilbert & Sullivan. Few Fannies.

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WPCNR ON THE AISLE. Review by John F. Bailey. September 23, 2005:  Gilbert & Sullivan In Brief (s) opened the White Plains Performing Arts Center crucial third season Friday evening for a one week run, (before the traditional WPPAC  “small for opening night but enthusiastic” audience), featuring a troupe of talented, engaging comic singing performers working earnestly with a concept in search of a good book and an identity.


 



WPPAC’s Fab Four: Left to Right, John Dewar, Deborah Jean Templin, Carolann Sanita, Matt Castle. Photo by Paul Undersinger , Courtesy White Plains Performing Arts Center.


 


 





This was opening night according to the WPPAC four color 2005-2006 Brochure. Raymond Cullom, the new Managing Director of the WPPAC and the Helen Hayes Theatre Company in Nyack,  welcomed the audience, saying that the WPPAC had these missions:  to provide a venue for local community group performances, (he invited members of the audience to inquire), “search the world” for entertainment, and “four times a year stage our own productions and nurture new shows.” He described this evening’s show as “the first and only preview performance,” and encouraged the audience to interact with the actors.


 


Then the fastidious Charles Czarnecki, the Musical Director/pianist entered stage right, to begin his 90 minutes of virtuoso plunking, up-and-down-the-keyboard soaring, and pounding breathless musical contrapuntiality that chases the Gilbert & Sullivan librettos. Mr. Czarnecki took fussy exacting measurements placing his piano seat, drawing some laughs, loosening up the “I-do-not-know-what-to-expect” audience in the mood for laughter. Mr. Czarnecki could embellish this bit, and he should consider it, play the sensitive, exacting artist to the hilt.


 


Then I saw  a clever concept that jauntily sampled 14 Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas that cannot make up its mind what it wants to be:


 


The actors come on to taped applause and introduce themselves.


 


Is it a group of actors in a throwaway gig in summerstock?  


A troupe of actors doing a Gilbert & Sullivan Revue in vaudeville?


Actors doing an unwitting expose of the formula art of musical making?


Actors doing a Gilbert & Sullivan night club act kibitzing the audience?


An evening of Mr. Gilbert & Mr. Sullivan themselves reminiscing their greatest hits and how they made them?


Or  about the cutthroat relationship between actors and actresses, a subplot played for laughs?


 


G&SIB  is all of these,  but like any work being “nurtured,” parts of it work better than others and should be built upon. Others discarded. When a shocker occurs after the parody of Ruddigore, the lines are said too fast for the audience to understand what just happened. At a moment in the performance that wakes you up, you don’t know what has happened. You only assume, that’s script failure or failure to enunciate the script, or an obscurity only “Gilbert & Sullivan” buffs could know.


 


The whole piece is done very fast and will please and amuse the Gilbert & Sullivan buff. But, you have to know the material to enjoy the satirical side of it. The clipped speed the English accents, and the rush, rush, rush burrows along like a London Underground Express with unexplained local stops.


 


There are some breathers, when the actors coalesce and segue to the next scene, portrayed with the vaudeville gimmick of placards. I confess I was getting uneasy towards the end. There are laughs at the antics and Marx Brothers-like running around stage, but  the 90 minutes do you in. The actors cleverly synopsisize each opera giving you a crash course in G & S.


 


The Genre Trap–Sturdy Book Needed.


 


 Since I do not know G & S except from high school chorus classes at Pleasantville High School, I see G&SIB and ask,is it entertaining me? G&SIB follows the current rage of building a weak book around a series of popular groups’ songs and calling it a musical.


 


G & SIB could be a lot more than that. You have personal elements of rivalry from the actors working against what they are doing in the same script, and part of the audience, at least I did,  wanted the show to explore that, younger woman older woman triangle with leading man and I wanted to know how these performer a performer dramas play out. The audience struggles for its emotional center (is there a romance here or not? then it disappears).


 


When Mr. Castle and Mr. Dewar  assume the personas of Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Sullivan, complete with pipes and mutton chop sideburns, really droll, wonderfully comic discussing their shows, you want more of that bit – that is good writing and portraying. I thought Gilbert and Sullivan being interviewed with the modern actors in some sort of fantasy could be elaborated on – that was when the script was really working and engaging me. Writers are such interesting people, anyway, don’t you think?


 


The audience took to the actors right away


 


The show tries hard to be liked, but like every Saturday Night Live skit it is a one joke script, draws polite laughs, an occasional hoot, a few belly laughs and much appreciation for the four virtuoso voices and personalities cavorting, pushing, driving themselves madly through this marathon:


 


The perky little beltzy soprano, Carolann Sanita, a little Gilda Radner, a giddy Goldie Hawn,  mugs in ingenue coyness and sings like Sarah Brightman in voice and demeanor.  The bombastic John Belushi-like comic tenor, Matt Castle, never lets go a laugh when he can work one.  The Jane Curtin type mezzo, Deborah Jean Templin, and the Tony Randallesque John Dewar neatly blended and I think were great casts by Mr. Cullom to do this Gilbert & Sullivan marathon.


 


Where are We?


 


The actors start the show, reading from cards as if they were doing a casting call. The venue is unclear. Their assignment is to do all 14 operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan and that is what they do. Matt Castle, the blonde robust tall tenor sets the comic tone with A Lovesick Boy, he also is wonderful in drag playing Buttercup complete with lipstick, and this is the most comical, entertaining mini-opera of the evening thanks to Mr. Castle’s rambunctious absurdity, he is a great soprano by the way. Mr. Castle is the comic star of the evening prancing and posturing and playing the segues with excellent timing, a Drew Carey big lovable lug.


 


The brunette Ms. Sanita the soprano voice fills the hall with genuinely pretty trills and high drama as befits the over-the-top Gilbert & Sullivan satire of opera that all of these mini-operas represent. Her solo in breastplate with sword as Princess Ida is her high moment in the show backed by her “Ah Ah Ah Ah” trills that reduce the other actors into submission.


 


Mr.  Dewar’s fine moment comes as he “auditions” for the part of “The Sorceror” swirling his cape and enunciating he is “John Wellington Wells who creates spells.” G & S were the Cole Porter of their day.


 


 Ms. Templin creates an intriguing rivalry with her soprano counterpart through the show fighting her for roles, providing good laughs. But it goes nowhere, it’s paralel without a connection.


 


All four actors singing He is an Englishman was very nobly done. In fact a gentleman next to your reviewer started singing along to “He’s an Englishman,” very audibly during the H.M.S. Pinafore mini-performance. (He was the only member of the audience who sang along. That has never happened to me in a theatre before.)


 


G&SIB packs in all-Gilbert-and-Sullivan all the time, including a synopsis of three acts of The Mikado.


 


By far the most interesting parts of this show are the interplay of the actors playing Gilbert and Sullivan discussing their writing formulas, which are remarkably still in use in many hit musicals of most of the last century. The formula: 4 characters, a virtuous young woman,  a handsome leading man, a mother and “a patter man” providing comic relief and scene-stealing. All the actors steal scenes in this show in a most believable way.


 


 (The program notes do not list the songs each of the actors sing, which is unforgivable from an actors’ standpoint. If I have to sing a gazillion Gilbert & Sullivan Songs, I want the critic to get my name and parts I sang right. The critic and the audience has no way of remembering who sung what there are so many songs in the show. )


 


A Celebrity Show


 


With all respect to the actors, this is a celebrity show, because it is a one-trick-pony, with fourteen different saddles, which shows you that successful shows are formula. If you had Faith Hill, Brittany Spears, John O’Herly, and Nathan Lane starring in this show,  they could carry it to success on their celebrity draw. A few pies in the face and seltzer bottles wouldn’t hurt either. There is much silliness in the show which would amuse children, but the one act is too long.


 


At nearly the end of the 90-minute show one of the actors says “only 6 minutes to go.” You should never write a line like that because it elicits a sigh of relief from the audience.


 


There is  a lag then and an actor says, “we need a brutal epic” end and there is some futzing about until they get going on doing all fourteen finales from all fourteen operas, with rapid fire costume changes. A classic finale, but they have to get to it quicker, since they said there were six minutes to go. When you go to a great entertainment you do not want it to end. You always want something more, the end needs a better setup.


 


A Last Minute Show


 


The audience applauded for a minute and a half. Liked it. In fact, the crowd, which numbered only 75 persons at curtain time, on opening night, despite a full-page ad in The Journal News yesterday underscore Mr. Cullom’s problem next year: the White Plains Performing Arts Center is running out of good will and support, when they do not sell out their opening night. It also points out the faux pas of not running in a blockbuster show to start the season. Gilbert & Sullivan is a genre, and the 75 persons on opening night are not a good sign.


 


 


One gets the feeling the new Managing Director needed a show for September since the original show was pulled from the schedule. The original show scheduled for September at WPPAC, Joan’s Other Kitchen, by Brian McConnachie was pulled. Helen Hayes Theatre Company got A Mother, A Daughter, and A Gun for September, a full-length play.


 


Mr. Cullom needed a show, so he put in his own, casting it about three weeks ago and pulling it off this evening.  Cullom originally wrote and performed the G&SIB show as a review with the Washington based theatre group, The Savoyards (a group that performs G & S exclusively) as a free warmup show in the lobby of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last fall.


 


 


 Mr. Cullom cast it a month ago in New York and pulled it off this evening, showing off his renowned stage director talents and working with four stalwart Broadway veterans. Mr. Cullom pulls it off nicely as do his actors but the show has holes. But, Mr. Cullom is a problem-solver.  He received high marks from Vincent Hughes, Chief Operations Officer of Citizens Services of Frederick Maryland, Mr. Hughes telling WPCNR Mr. Cullom was responsible for staffing up and programming that community’s theatre for a new season and presiding over a successful season as a consultant, in 2004 when the entire staff had just quit. He fixes problems and I will say he got this show on in less than a month from casting to design and that is an achievement.


 


 Mr. Cullom also serves as Managing Director of the Helen Hayes Theatre  Company in Nyack, splitting his time with WPPAC. To be fair, G&SIB would probably not have been Mr. Cullom’s first choice to open the rapidly-running-out-of-time-to-win-an-audience Performing Arts Center if he were programming this season.


 


It is short for the $40 price. It runs 90 minutes straight which is a lot of G & S back to back to back. It’s an earnest clever little warm up revue, which is what it was scheduled to be at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival in Scotland in August where it was booked for a one month run of free matinees and cancelled at the last minute two days before its first performance– but  an Open Night evening’s blockbuster entertainment for $35-$40 it is not.


 


 


This is  WPPAC’s Artistic Director Tony Stimac’s walk year, and Saving Aimee, or Aimee, (the title not quite certain)  the next production has got to come through for the theatre and start generating some community interest. It is the new Kathie Lee Gifford-created musical, and that will be followed by A Christmas Carol in December, and Phyllis Newman in Girl’s Room and a black musical called Charlie’s Place in the spring.


 


Gilbert & Sullivan In Brief(s)  is a good show to educate young persons into the cult of Gilbert & Sullivan. But it is an acquired taste..


 


G & SIB is “coming along” but it is not ready for Broadway.


 


More book. More bones.


 


As Gabby sang in City of Angels:


It needs work.


 


It needs Gilbert & Sullivan.


 


Gilbert & Sullivan In Brief plays through October 2, 2005. For information on showtimes, call 1-888-977-2250, or 328-1600.

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Rolling at City Center Cinema De Lux

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WPCNR SCREEN GEMS. From National Amusements. September 23, 2005: In Her Shoes  comes on board this weekend at the City Center Cinema De Lux in White Plains. The showtimes and rundowns of the City Center’s top films:






















In Theatres Now
Cry Wolf Owen Matthews is an 18-year-old bad-boy, who has bounced through more New England prep schools than he can count. Down to his last strike, Owen is sent to Westover Prep, where he is quickly smitten with Dodger Allen. Owen learns that Dodger runs a “recreational liar’s club,” which he decides to take to a much higher level. (PG-13) Just Like Heaven When David sublets his quaint San Francisco apartment, the last thing he expected or wanted was a roommate. He had only begun to make a complete mess of the place when a pretty young woman named Elizabeth suddenly shows up, adamantly insisting the apartment is hers. David assumes there’s been a giant misunderstanding. (PG-13) The Exorcism of Emily Rose In an extremely rare decision, the Catholic Church officially recognized the demonic possession of a 19-year-old college freshman. A lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed the exorcism that resulted in the girl’s death. (PG-13)







Coming Soon To Theatres
Flightplan Flying at 40,000 feet in a cavernous, state-of-the-art 474 aircraft, Kyle Pratt faces every mother’s worst nightmare when her six-year-old daughter, Julia, vanishes without a trace mid-flight from Berlin to New York. Already emotionally devastated by the unexpected death of her husband, Kyle desperately struggles to prove her sanity to the disbelieving flight crew and passengers while facing the very real possibility that she may be losing her mind. While neither Captain Rich nor Air Marshal Gene Carson want to doubt the bereaved widow, all evidence indicates that her daughter was never on board, resulting in paranoia and doubt among the passengers and crew of the plane. (PG-13) In Her Shoes Alternately hilarious and heart-rending, ’In Her Shoes’ is about two sisters with nothing in common but size 8 ? feet. After a calamitous falling out, they travel the bumpy road toward a true appreciation for one another — aided along the way by the grandmother they never knew they had. (PG-13) Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D Audiences will be transported to the surface of the moon to walk alongside the 12 extraordinary astronauts who have been there, experiencing what they saw, heard, felt, thought and did. Presented and narrated by Tom Hanks, ’Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D’ features never-before-seen photographs, previously unreleased NASA footage, CGI imaging and live-action renditions of the lunar landscape. It is sponsored by Lockheed Martin Corporation and filmed with the cooperation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (NR) Roll Bounce A young man and his pals rule supreme at their local roller-skating rink, but when the doors close, the boys venture into foreign territory — uptown’s Sweetwater Roller Rink, complete with over-the-top skaters and beautiful girls. Through his preparation for the roller-showdown of the season, the young man manages to find himself and also help his struggling dad get back on track. (PG-13) Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride Set in a 19th century European village, this stop-motion, animated feature follows the story of Victor, a young man who is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride, while his real bride, Victoria, waits bereft in the land of the living. Although life in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love. (PG)

NOW PLAYING






 













Friday, September 23, 2005
Cry Wolf (PG-13) 12:45 3:15 5:35 7:50 10:20 pm 12:40 am.
Flightplan (PG-13) 12:50 3:10 5:30 7:50 10:10 pm 12:30 am.
Flightplan (PG-13) [Director’s Hall;Reserved Seating] 12:20 2:40 5:00 7:20 9:40 pm 12:00 am.
Just Like Heaven (PG-13) [Director’s Hall;Reserved Seating] 12:00 2:20 4:50 7:10 9:30 11:55 pm.
Just Like Heaven (PG-13) 12:30 2:50 5:20 7:40 10:00 pm 12:25 am.
Lord of War (R) 12:55 3:50 6:55 9:35 pm 12:20 am.
Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (NR) [IMAX;IMAX Reserved Seating] 12:00 1:30 3:00 4:30 6:15 7:45 pm.
Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (NR) [IMAX] 12:00 1:30 3:00 4:30 6:15 7:45 pm.
Red Eye (PG-13) 9:05 11:10 pm.
Roll Bounce (PG-13) 12:05 2:35 5:15 7:45 10:15 pm 12:40 am.
Sky High (PG) 12:10 2:25 pm.
The 40 Year-Old Virgin (R) 1:00 4:00 7:05 9:50 pm 12:25 am.
The Constant Gardener (R) 1:10 4:10 7:00 9:55 pm 12:40 am.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (PG-13) 12:40 3:35 6:35 9:15 11:50 pm.
The Thing About My Folks (PG-13) 12:25 3:05 5:25 7:35 10:15 pm 12:30 am.
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (PG) [Director’s Hall;Reserved Seating] 12:35 2:30 4:40 6:45 8:50 10:50 pm.
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (PG) [RWC] 1:05 3:00 5:10 7:15 9:20 11:20 pm.
Wedding Crashers (R) 4:45 7:30 10:05 pm 12:35 am.








Saturday, September 24, 2005
Cry Wolf (PG-13) 12:45 3:15 5:35 7:50 10:20 pm 12:40 am.
Flightplan (PG-13) 12:50 3:10 5:30 7:50 10:10 pm 12:30 am.
Flightplan (PG-13) [Director’s Hall;Reserved Seating] 12:20 2:40 5:00 7:20 9:40 pm 12:00 am.
In Her Shoes (PG-13) 7:30 pm.
Just Like Heaven (PG-13) 12:30 2:50 5:20 7:40 10:00 pm 12:25 am.
Just Like Heaven (PG-13) [Director’s Hall;Reserved Seating] 12:00 2:20 4:50 7:10 9:30 11:55 pm.
Lord of War (R) 12:55 3:50 6:55 9:35 pm 12:20 am.
Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (NR) [IMAX] 12:00 1:30 3:00 4:30 6:15 7:45 pm.
Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (NR) [IMAX;IMAX Reserved Seating] 12:00 1:30 3:00 4:30 6:15 7:45 pm.
Red Eye (PG-13) 9:05 11:10 pm.
Roll Bounce (PG-13) 12:05 2:35 5:15 7:45 10:15 pm 12:40 am.
Sky High (PG) 12:10 2:25 pm.
The 40 Year-Old Virgin (R) 1:00 4:00 7:05 9:50 pm 12:25 am.
The Constant Gardener (R) 1:10 4:10 9:55 pm 12:40 am.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (PG-13) 12:40 3:35 6:35 9:15 11:50 pm.
The Thing About My Folks (PG-13) 12:25 3:05 5:25 7:35 10:15 pm 12:30 am.
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (PG) [Director’s Hall;Reserved Seating] 12:35 2:30 4:40 6:45 8:50 10:50 pm.
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (PG) [RWC] 1:05 3:00 5:10 7:15 9:20 11:20 pm.
Wedding Crashers (R) 4:45 7:30
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Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art Moves Art Out of the Museum

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WPCNR ART NEWS. From Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. September 23, 2005: The weekend of Saturday, September 24 and Sunday, September 25, the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (HVCCA) launches its second annual citywide exhibition of cutting edge contemporary art by national and international artists.  The event will run weekends from September 24 through October 16, from 12-6pm, and will feature roughly 60 artworks by 80 artists, including painters, sculptors, photographers, video artists, installation and performance artists, and artists who defy categorization.  A celebration bash and artists’ reception will take place from 5:00-8:00 PM on Sunday September 25, at the HVCCA 1701 Main Street, Peekskill, New York.  While the Center’s staff, artists, curators, and members of the community toast the enormity of the event the real celebration takes place literally on the streets of Peekskill.



Underground Railroad and Yellow Brick Road featured. 


“The overwhelming response from the community, its business owners, residents and their children, not to mention the tremendous number of visitors drawn to the first Peekskill Project, speaks to the power of provocative works that are woven into the fabric of this town as well as those dynamic works that invite community participation,” observes Livia Straus, President and co-founder of the HVCCA. 


Launched with the goal of bringing contemporary art out of the museum and into the community, Straus believes that what differentiates Peekskill Project 2005 is its ability to stay focused on the works themselves while providing a virtually wide open forum for young, cutting edge artists.  Says Sara Pasti, HVCCA’s Executive Director,  “A unique aspect of this year’s project, also titled ‘Ghosts of Peekskill,’ is the number of artworks that explore Peekskill’s social, cultural and geographic history. 


Among the historical elements highlighted this year are Peekskill’s hidden brook, an Underground Railroad site, and the yellow brick road featured in Frank O. Baum’s ‘Wizard of Oz.’”



This year’s artists/art teams have been nominated by Curatorial Advisors, including the following nationally recognized curators: Nathalie Anglès (Curator, Location One Residency Program Director), Paul Clay (video artist and founding member, Fictive Studios), Susanna Cole (independent curator), Kari Conte (independent curator), Erin Donnelly (Curator, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council), Firefly (members of the Cultural Division of Amnesty International), Alison Levy (Organizer, Peekskill Project: 2004), Carmen Zita (independent curator, ZINC Art Management) and Ricardo Viera (Director of the Lehigh University Art Gallery).



This is also the second year that Project Coordinator Alison Levy has organized an extraordinary event requiring the coordination of dozens of participating venues, including local businesses, galleries, public spaces, factories, the HVCCA’s own backyard, and other sites scattered throughout the city.  Artwork will be sited in four distinct locations in Peekskill, including (1) the waterfront, (2) Peekskill’s historic commercial district, (3) Main Street and (4) HVCCA.  Artwork will be accessible by public transportation, including a special shuttle bus that will be provided to transport people from the train station, to downtown Peekskill, and to the HVCCA.   


“After the first Peekskill Project, many businesses asked whether the artwork could stay up,” said Alison Levy.  “They found that the works drew people into their stores and were good for business; we won a lot of public support as well.  Like last year’s project, Peekskill Project 2005 will again afford many with the opportunity to learn more about Peekskill’s history, while they and their children can actually work with and learn about a lot of exciting new artists.”  



The works are as varied as the emerging artists themselves, who represent nine countries and live and work in New York City and across the US.  Many of the artists create work that has not been widely seen in public settings.  Artists who are included in Peekskill Project 2005 are: Eric Angles, Eric Arctander, Jo-Ann Brody, Dean Friedman, Kelly Kivland and Stephanie Skaf, Edgar Orlaineta, Eliza Proctor, Micah Silver, Sarah Haviland, Erik Hanson and William Whalen, Pia Lindman, Ana Prvackii, Lise Prown, Gene Panczenko and Marcy Freedman, Luca Stoppini, Laurel Garcia Colvin, Justen Ladda, Robert Thurmer, Heather Mims, Rachel Winborn, Alicia Grullon, Lori Nozick, Union Docks, among many others.


 


Some of the specific projects that will be part of Peekskill Project 2005 are:


 


(1)    Wheels, a project by Dean Friedman, will feature a customized bicycle parade for local schoolchildren and artists who will be invited to participate in a decorate-your-own bicycle contest that uses the natural kinetic appeal of the bicycle to encourage creativity and artistic experimentation.


 


(2)    The World is My Soul/Sole, by Edgar Orlaineta, is an art “intervention” involving the installation of a number of rubber sandal straps directly to ground, so that the ground and/or floor becomes the sole of the sandals.  The piece invites the viewer to think about the places that we inhabit and travel.


 


(3)    Vision Project, by Rick Falco, presents photographic documentation of a ground breaking education program held at Fort Smith, near Peekskill. Vision Projects has focused on the use of photography to build awareness of social issues and human needs.  The photographs will be displayed in the windows of the Workman’s Compensation Bureau Bldg in downtown Peekskill.


 


(4)    Sound Installation for Ford Piano, by Micah Silver, will explore the individual and collective resonances of nearly 100 semi-functional pianos that will be activated with an array of loudspeakers featuring sound material from Ford Piano and from surrounding areas within the City of Peekskill.


 


(5)    Effervescence, Subtle Mass Orbs, by Erik Hanson and William Whalen, will consist of four massive helium-filled orbs (meteorological balloons) that will float in triangular geometric formation above a local Main Street factory building.  A speaker box playing manipulated white noise will offer an aural experience to complement the viewer’s visual experience.


 


(6)    Rosie Goes Wild, by Ana Pravci, a surface work of 3,300 stickers of life-size rivets, is conceived as a tribute to Rosie Hickey, who was also known as “Rosie the Riveter.”  She and her partner drilled 900 holes and placed 3,300 rivets in an airplane tail end within six hours at the former GM Eastern Aircraft plant in nearby North Tarrytown, NY. 


 


(7)    Inner Light: Quakers in Peekskill, by Sarah Haviland, is a mixed-media installation referring in part to the history of the Quakers who settled Peekskill and who built two meeting houses for worship in the 1800’s at the two ends of South Street.  Open in mind and spirit, the Quaker tradition helped to form this interracial community, and its legacy of conviction remains.


 


(8)    Hold the Line, by Joanne Brody, focuses, through sculptural works, on the memories of the artist as she recalls the turmoil faced by her family during the social and political turmoil that overtook Peekskill in the late 90’s


 


(10)Downtown Peekskill Walking Tour, conceived by Eric Angles, will present official tourist       information of three cities of similar sizes—Peekskill, NY (pop. 24,166); Graneros, Chile (pop. 24,115);       and Trou aux Biches, Mauritius (pop. 24,117)—in carefully crafted, weatherproof brochure racks in       several selected sites in Peekskill.  The juxtaposition of the brochures will cause viewers to think about       the ways in which towns and cities, including Peekskill, are presented and marketed to the world.


 


Nostalgia, an exhibition curated by Carmen Zita for the HVCCA, will feature works by artists Ann Hamilton, Mona Hatoum, Justen Ladda, Julian Laverdiere, Matvey Levenstein, Luca Stoppini, DustinYellin and Kristof Yvore.   Special exhibitions of artists’ works are also being featured at Peekskill galleries including Maxwell Fine Arts at 1204 Main Street, Casola Gallery at 927 South Street, and Gallery 25N at 25 North Division Street.


 


Artists’ performances, video screenings, conversations and panel discussions will take place at the HVCCA and other locations each weekend from Sept 24-Oct 16.    The closing celebration to be held on Sunday, October 16, beginning at 3:30pm, will feature a presentation by renowned video artist, Shirin Neshat.  Support for the “Ghosts of Peekskill:  Peekskill Project 2005” has been provided by Entergy Charitable Foundation, Ginsburg Development LLC, the Peekskill Business Improvement District, The City of Peekskill, The Peekskill Museum, Hudson River Community Health, and numerous other local businesses and organizations that are serving as sponsors for individual artworks.


 


HVCCA is a not-for-profit institution that opened to the public in June 2004.  Founded by the Marc and Livia Straus family, the Center is dedicated to the development and presentation of new art, exhibits and interdisciplinary programs that enrich our understanding of contemporary art, its contexts, and its relationships to societal issues.  The Center is committed to the enrichment of Peekskill, a multicultural community that has recreated itself as a major center for art and culture.  HVCCA operates a 12,000 square foot exhibition space in Peekskill and is the primary sponsor of the Peekskill Project, an annual, citywide exhibition of site-specific artwork.

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Family of Concetta Russo-Carriero Files Notice of Claim on County, City.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET LAW JOURNAL. September 22, 2005: White Plains City Corporation Counsel Edward Dunphy announced tonight that the family of the woman murdered in The Galleria last June has filed a Notice of Claim against Westchester County, the City of White Plains, the Parking Department and the Traffic Commission, among other parties, reserving the family’s right to file a lawsuit against the city over the death of Concetta Russo-Carriero. WPCNR is awaiting official court papers for the details.

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Surveyor Crew Was Drawing Up Plans to Widen Saxon Woods Road Not Repave It

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WPCNR SOUTHEND TIMES. By John F. Bailey. Septermber 22, 2005:  A resident of 23 Rosedale Avenue who lives in a 200 year old farmhouse on the corner of Saxon Woods Road, said today to the CitizeNetReporter that the field worker with Maser Consulting he spoke to  last week said definitely the study he was working on with his crew was for the widening of Saxon Wood Road from Mamaroneck Avenue to the Scarsdale line.



 


Neil Waldman in a telephone interview with CNR, said the crewman told him the study was commissioned from his company  by the City of White Plains because city surveyors were overworked with surveying other city projects.


 


Waldman said the crew was there before he and his family left on vacation three weeks ago and were still working up until the beginning of  this week, when he encountered the Maser field worker “in his backyard” on the corner of Saxon Woods Road and Rosedale Avenue.


 


Waldman reports the field worker told him “They (Maser Consulting) were hired to draw up a plan for widening of Saxon Woods Road and Rosedale Avenue, taking 10 feet on the East Side and 10 to 15 feet on the West side of Saxon Woods Road from White Plains to Scarsdale. He said the city had to figure how much property they would have to take, and what payments to homeowners were involved.”


 


Waldman said the field worker said, “before they started work they needed a preliminary survey of both sides.”


Waldman said, to his knowledge the city had allocated funds to repave Saxon Woods Road in 2008-2009, but was puzzled by the survey: “It doesn’t make sense. You don’t have to survey how to widen the road if you’re just repaving it.”


 


Mr. Waldman was very concerned about even speculative plans for widening Saxon Woods Road or his street, Rosedale Avenue, because of the granite nature of the terrain. He said that in the construction of the medical building on the corner of Mamaroneck Avenue and Rosedale Avenue, blasting to clear the site had cracked the swimming pool of the house next door to the medical building site. 


 


Waldman added that, in his opinion, widening of Saxon Woods Road to the extent being surveyed by reported city specifications  would require extensive blasting that would be dangerous to the structural intergrity of the homes in the neighborhood.


 


Waldman said the field worker was very politically sensitive reassuring Mr. Waldman, “telling me not to be concerned. This project may not happen.”


 


According to a high level source within the White Plains Department of Public Works, speaking to WPCNR Wednesday evening,  there is “no plan to widen Saxon Woods Road. This is the kind of routine survey we always do at the start of a project. It is just going to be repaved.”


 


WPCNR observes that Saxon Woods Road is used as a “cut through” by southbound afternoon rush hour traffic on the Hutchinson River Parkway seeking to avoid the perennial jam at the Mamaroneck Ave-Hutch interchange. Observers say the southbound motorists exit at North Street, turn onto Rosedale, follow it cross to Saxon Woods Road, and make a right and follow Saxon Woods Road to Old Mamaroneck Road  to get back on the Hutch southbound below the Saxon Woods Golf Course–  or they make right and follow Saxon Woods Road into Scarsdale, to connect with Post Road Southbound or to the Bronx River Parkway. 

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On Way to a Million: Cappellis Give $500,000 to WPHC; Trump $100,000 for Naming

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WPCNR TALK OF MARTINE AVENUE. By John F. Bailey. September 22, 2005:  Kylie Cappelli, Co Chair of the White Plains Hospital Gala celebrating the opening of Trump Tower,  presented a check for $500,000 to White Plains Hospital Center on behalf of  her husband Louis Cappelli and the Louis Cappelli Foundation. Mr. Cappelli’s partner in the building, Donald J. Trump purchased the naming rights to a new wing of White Plains Hospital Center for $100,000 to begin and end, respectively, the fundraising auction that highlighted  and heralded a new standard in fundraisers – Louis Cappelli style —  at Trump Tower at City Center Wednesday night.


 



An overwhelmed Jon Schandler, CEO of White Plains Hospital Center, accepting the Cappelis’ $500,000 check at the beginning of the live auction last night at Trump Tower at City Center. LtoR: Emcee William O’Shaugnessy, Mr. Schandler, Kylie Travis Cappelli, and Louis Cappelli.  Photo by WPCNR News


 


 



A Hamptons Garden Party on the Roof of the City Center Garage. The high and the mighty of Westchester schmooze and cruise as the party gets under way at 8. Photo by WPCNR News


Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. Anybody Who Is Anybody In Westchester, 700 citizens many of whom paid $500 each, plus distinguished members of the press, all created a crush to get into easily the best party of the year, many waiting the better part of 40 minutes to go aloft to see the model penthouses and apartments in the posh Trump Tower at City Center.  They were there schmoozing and giving to what Mayor Joseph Delfino called the county’s best hospital on a real lawn created on the rooftop of the City Center Garage.  All worked the venue in an ingenious party tent complete with orchestra playing big band sounds and mouth watering cuisine from seventeen restaurants.


 



The Party Tent. Photo by WPCNR News


 


WVOX’s William O’Shaughnessy emceed the event and introduced luminaries in attendance, who included State Senators Suzi Oppenheimer and Nick Spano, Assemblypersons Adam Bradley, Richard Brodsky, and Amy Paulin, County Executive Andy Spano, Deputy County Executive Larry Schwarz, and Chairman of the Board of Legislators Bill Ryan,  Yorktown Supervisor Linda Cooper, District Attorney Jeanine Pirro,  plus the distinguished White Plains Common Council and Mayor Joseph Delfino.


 


 



Mayor Joseph Delfino, foreground was the first speaker, thanking Mr. Cappelli and Mr. Trump for sharing his vision. Photo by WPCNR News.


 


The Mayor said: “It is truly humbling for me tonight to be before you. This building, this concept of a renaissance was a dream come true for me. When I took office eight years ago we had a vision for what we wanted in a downtown,  residential housing, restaurants,  a movie theatre, top notch retail establishments and most of all  people, and you know what, in one block we got it all and how did it get started? thanks to Lou Cappelli and Donald Trump. For them, I owe a great thanks. Louis Cappelli  and Donald Trump you bought in to our vision of White Plains. We can never thank you enough … I can tell you these two men and this project has truly helped to bring White Plains back to life and a new beginning for us here in White Plains. Let me tell you, this would never have happened without all of us working together.


        I tell you,  I’ve got my Common Council here tonight. I’m not  going to mention them by name but I’m going ask them each to stand because we truly worked together. I can never thank them enough. This table here. Let’s give them a fabulous round of applause.”


 


The Mayor also called the White Plains Hospital Center “the finest health care facility in this county without a question.” He thanked the doctors of the hospital for their service to the city.”


 


Mr. O’Shaughnessy, after the Mayor finished speaking, took it upon himself to introduce the Common Council.


 


Andy Spano, the County Executive said the opening of Trump Tower was the greatest moment in the history of White Plains since the Battle of White Plains, and noted that the county had helped with the building of Trump Tower through its Industrial Development Agency.


 



Donald J. Trump at the podium, bantering with Louis and Kylie Cappelli. Photo by WPCNR News.


 


However, the evening belonged to Donald J. Trump and Louis Cappelli, who combined to put on a show. Mr. Cappelli by presenting a series of letters written by first graders about Mr. Trump, creating great laughter and moments of truth, and by Mr. Cappelli’s recounting his own romance with Kylie Cappelli, his wife in which he recounted their courtship and their first meeting in Atlantic City arranged by Mr. Trump.  Mr. Cappelli told, how by using a chip replacement system at the roulette table, he managed to convince the future Mrs. Cappelli, he was her “lucky charm,” that evening and wound up dating her for eight years marrying her two years ago.


 


Mr. Cappelli thanked his many banks for financing the project, and his construction experts who built Trump Tower.


 


Karen Lennon, Vice President of Public Relations for White Plains Hospital Center, as partiers gathered in the courtyard at 7 PM, told WPCNR the funds raised from the event, expected to top $1 Million were going to the $35 Million fund raising effort being conducted to double the size of  Center’s emergency room, expand the Comprehensive Cardiology Center, radiology, endoscopy, neo-natal and maternity and the Nursing Scholarship Endowment Fund. Lennon said, “The real goal is expanding our field into the community. Mr. Cappelli and Mr. Trump give us an opportunity to expand our friends in the community. It’s all good.”


 


The occasion was preceded by the opportunity to view four luxury apartments in the Trump Tower at City Center that dazzled this reporter with their views and their furnishings. The entire building is sold out according to Marge Schneider, a Cappelli executive, and she also noted that 30% of the 212 residences have been purchased by single persons 25 to 35 years, the balance of the owners-to-be empty nesters and couples in their 30s and 40s. Schneider said the first owners would be moving into the Trump Tower on Monday.  She said none of the Trump Tower condominiums had been resold as of yet.


 


 

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Government Talking to Donald Trump About Rebuilding Areas Damaged by Katrina.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. September 22, 2005: Donald J. Trump told the CitizeNetReporter this evening  the federal government has been in talks with him to rebuild the Hurricane Katrina devastated Gulf Region. Asked by WPCNR as he was leaving the White Plains Hospital Center Gala at Trump Tower Thursday evening, if the government had been talking to him about rebuilding the area, Trump told WPCNR, “Yeah, they’ve been talking to me about it. We’ll have to see what happens.”  He was reluctant to speak in more detail, and it could not be learned who was negotiating with Mr. Trump on the part of the federal government.



Donald J. Trump Arriving at Trump Tower at City Center for the building’s grand opening Wednesday evening, in an impromptu sidewalk press conference. Photo by WPCNR News


The revelation  to WPCNR that the  U.S. Government is considering bringing in  America’s best known most successful developer to the mission of Gulf region recovery, came after Trump had spoken to a Japanese television reporter who asked him about Hurricane Katrina damage, and Trump said “I may very well get involved down there.”


 



Louis Cappelli, “The Super Developer,” left, and Donald J. Trump, “The Super Dealer,” as Mr. Trump arrived fasionably late at the White Plains Hospital Center Gala. Photo by WPCNR News.


 


Louis Cappelli, “The Super Developer,” builder of Trump Tower at City Center, who was  hosting Mr. Trump later told WPCNR as the gala was winding down that Mr. Trump had told Mr. Cappelli  that the government had been talking to him, and that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Cappelli what he thought. Cappelli said, “They have been talking to him about it. He talked to me about, asked what I thought. I told him it was a super opportunity for housing, retail, to build a whole new city. We’re talking over $200 Billion in development.”


 


Asked if he might join Mr. Trump to rebuild New Orleans and other hurricane devasted areas, Cappelli told WPCNR he would definitely consider it.


 


WPCNR asked Cappelli if he thought the below sea level condition of New Orleans was a problem. He said, “No, all you have to do is build the levees to withstand a Category 5 Hurricane.”


 


Asked if he was looking at building anywhere else in White Plains, Cappelli said, “Where? There’s no other land.”


 


Trump’s revelation that he’s been talking to government officials came after his appearance on the Fox Television Network show,  “ The O’Reilly Factor,” where Trump said the area could only be rebuilt by private developers receiving significant tax incentives, noting that, by Trump’s estimate they needed 600,000 units of housing, and most developers could only build 1,000 a year.


 


 

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